No New Vices...

My birthday approaches.

It is tomorrow.

I will be entering my 70th year.

How can that be????

Birthdays always seem to call for reflection.

I haven't been in much of a reflective mood lately.

So,

I decided to make a quick inventory of the past year.

Quick.

It must be quick.

Now is not the time to write out a long reflection.

I'll save the long reflection for my journal.

I have no new vices to report.

I do have a few new devices.

I never saw these things coming. 

Wouldn't I always be young, healthy and full of energy?

Well, I guess not.

I never thought I'd get excited about new medical devices.

Today, my new One Touch VerioSync Blood Glucose Monitoring Device arrived,

just in time for my birthday.  

(Thank you, dear hubby for always keeping my medications, medical devices, and technology up to date.  He always takes care of these things for me.  He does a great job of it too.)

While the fact that I need a glucose monitoring device is definitely not cool,

the fact that very technologically advanced glucose monitors are available is cool.

The carrying case holds the standard items:

lancing device, lancets, test strips.

The monitor is set up to sync automatically to my iPhone.

Isn't that cool?

So, if I take a blood sample and test it on the monitor, the results go directly to an app on my phone.

The time and date of the test is automatically recorded.

I then can record if the reading was taken before or after a meal.

The results automatically show where the recording falls in the target range of glucose levels.

I also have a place to record daily carb intake and exercise.

The app can detect new patterns within a 14 day period if they occur.

It also keeps a 14 day log book.

I wondered what my dad would think of the device.

I know he would be upset that I am pre-diabetic, but I know he would be happy I am on top of it and monitoring my disease.

My goal is to beat it.

Exercise and diet are the key.

Then, there is my new device that I also never saw coming.

This is the black monster that lives in my walk-in closet:  the oxygen machine.

At night, I hook it up to send oxygen to my CPAP.

I've been on oxygen at night for three nights now.

While, I still doubt I really need the oxygen, I do feel better since I have been using it.

The holter monitor results do not even come close to matching the oximeter/pulsesock results, 

Since both the holter and the oximeter reports were collected at the same time, 

the holter monitor is the most reliable test.

It shows no alarming results.

The holter monitor test would not trigger a requirement for oxygen.

I saw the cardiac nurse today and was having symptoms while I was there.

I was very light headed and my heart was in tacycardia that would not resolve itself in a timely manner,

so 

I must see her again in two weeks,

then,

I see a new electrophysiologist in a few weeks after that.

We will get to the bottom of my all of this cardiac business.

Do all these medical devices come with age,

genetics, lifestyle choices?  

Who knows the answer to this.

I am not going to stress over the devices that help me have a better quality of life.

I am going to give thanks for them.

New devices around here are not the only news.

We also have a few new appliances.

Even though I really didn't want to spend money on new appliances, we really did need them.

The dishwasher no long worked, and it leaked.

I said I could wash a lot of dishes by hand rather than buy a new dishwasher.

My husband said we needed to check out a sale at Sears.

I did miss my brand new Bosch that I had to leave behind when we moved a year ago.

So, we went to Sears, and my husband bought me this:

A brand new Bosch dishwasher that has three shelves for loading dishes.

While we were looking at dishwashers, I was insisting we were not buying anything at all,

but after he bought the dishwasher, 

he bought these:

A brand new microwave and a new wall oven.

The wall oven can be set to bake the old fashioned way, or I can choose convection baking.

It is pretty nifty.

Yes, 

I did need a new microwave and a new oven.

The old ones didn't really work,

but I didn't want the expenditure.

Now, I am able to actually cook food that is done in the middle and not burned on the outside.

After buying all of this,

he wasn't done yet.

Within minutes, he had also bought this:

a new cooktop.

I really do like this.

The old cooktop could not be trusted.

I learned too many times that the simmer setting did not mean that the food would simmer.

It meant the food would not cook at all.

Some of the burners on the old cooktop did not work.

Now, I have this beautiful new cooktop.

The blue lights indicate that the burner controls are locked so they won't be accidentally turned on.

You know what all this means, don't you?

It means I have to cook.

That's ok.  I needed to learn to cook again.

I have no excuses now.

I also got a new sewing machine.

I bought this for myself a few months ago.

Recently, my old reliable, much used sewing machine would not work at all.

It was cheaper to buy a new one than to repair the old one.

I bought, on a whim, a Singer Curvy.

I've used it once to hem a pair of pajamas for my husband.

I wasn't sure it worked right, so I finally took the machine to my one free class yesterday.

Sure enough, it has some problems and is already in for repair.

Hmmm. not sure how this will all end.

As I write this post, I become aware that 

I do have a new vice.

It is also a new device.

It is my new iPad Mini with Retina display.

I've never been a fan of iPads.

My husband had one, and I never really liked it.

My husband wanted to either buy me a new Kindle Paperwhite or an iPad Mini for Christmas.

I've used a Kindle for reading for quite a few years now, but never liked to read non-fiction on it.

After much deliberation, I decided I would give the iPad Mini a try.

I LOVE IT.

Reading non-fiction on this device is great.

I can read historical fiction and link to Google for more information as I read if I so desire.

I can read the newspaper on it.

I can read magazines on it.

I can Facebook on it.

I can use it for email.

I just don't like to use it for blogging.

I must be honest.

This little device has  become my new vice.

Hey, I live in Colorado.

I could have begun smoking pot.

I have not done that, nor do I plan to do so.

That is another subject for another day.

This is the end of my quick birthday reflection.

This reflective piece was not very deep,

but it does give a quick glance into what has been going on around here lately.